As everyone knows by now, Donald Trump, appearing at the Black Journalists Association conference, responded to a question about whether he regards Harris as a D.E.I candidate by going in another direction, one that raised the issue of Harris’s integrity and ever-changing positions.
“Well, I can say, no, I think it’s maybe a little bit different,” Trump began. “So, I’ve known her a long time indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage. And she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black? But you know what, I respect either one.”
Trump was trolling, as usual, and spitting into the metaphorical wind, also as usual, so the reaction was entirely predictable, as EA already discussed here. It’s a week later, and the Axis is still trying to make a Trump ad lib the focus of its campaign “coverage.”
On ABC today, George Stephanopoulos couldn’t restrain his inner Democrat hack and flipped out because Trump surrogate Rep. Byron Donalds refused to concede that Harris’s manipulation of her various ethnic identity cards wasn’t a legitimate point for Trump to make. Here’s the full exchange:
Stephanopoulos: Why is former President Trump questioning the Vice President’s racial identity?
Donalds: Well, first, George, in Chicago he was responding to a question from, I believe, Rachel Scott. Like, this is really a phony controversy. I don’t really care. Most people don’t. But if we’re going to be accurate, when Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was AP that said she was the first Indian American United States senator. It was actually played up a lot when she came into the Senate. Now she’s running nationally. Obviously, the campaign has shifted. They’re talking much more about – about her father’s heritage and her black identity.
It doesn’t really matter. The president mentioned it. What he also talks about far more frequently is the fact that Kamala Harris is the person who created this massive inflation which is destroying black families, white families, Hispanic families. It’s her failure as border czar that has left our southern border wide open. More than 10 million illegal immigrants coming into our country. Record fentanyl coming into our country which has killed more Americans than at any other point in the history of our country with respect specifically to fentanyl.
Stephanopoulos: OK.
Donalds: And the fact that she and Joe Biden have unleashed one of the worst foreign policies in the history of our country that has us on the verge of World War III. That is Kamala Harris’ record. President Trump talks about that frequently. But, yes, he did mention it in Chicago, in response to a question from Rachel Scott.
Stephanopoulos: And you – and you just repeated the slur again! If it doesn’t matter, why do you all keep questioning her identity? She’s always identified as a black woman. She is biracial. She has a Jamaican father and an Indian mother. She’s always identified as both. Why are you questioning that?
Donalds: Well, George, first of all, this is something that’s actually a conversation throughout social media right now. There were a lot of people who were trying to figure this out. But again, that’s a side issue, not the main issue. The main issue that’s (INAUDIBLE) – Kamala Harris is the vice president of the United States.
Stephanopoulos: Sir, one second. So, you just did it – you just did it again.
Donalds: George, (INAUDIBLE) for what (INAUDIBLE) –
Stephanopoulos: Why – why do you – why do you insist on questioning her racial identity?
Donalds: You want to talk or do you want me to talk?
Stephanopoulos: I – I want you to answer my question.
Donalds: OK, you don’t yelling at – George – George, now that you’re done yelling at me, let me answer. He talked about it on the stage yesterday in Atlanta for, what, two minutes? He spent more than 35, 40 minutes going after her record, talking about how radical of a senator that she was. She was the most liberal senator in the United States – in the United States Senate. That is a fact. He talked about the job that she did as Vice President of the United States. A job, I will add, which has been a failure for the American people. I know you guys like to glom on to this, that he talks about in jest or in a serious manner for about a minute or so. What you do not cover is the litany of failures of Kamala Harris. That’s what you’re not covering, George.
Stephanopoulos: So, question – so questioning somebody’s racial identity for a couple of minutes is OK?
Donalds: George, I’m going to tell you again, he brought it up. AP is the one that wrote the headline when she first came into the United States Senate. Didn’t talk about her being black. Talked about her being the first Indian American senator. AP brought that up. I mean, George, we could have this conversation for the entire segment, but none of this matters to the American people. What matters to the American people is, are we going to have the same policies of the Biden-Harris administration that has been destructive of the American people? Or are we going to have the policies of the Trump administration which put America first, had low inflation, prosperous Americans no matter your race, no matter your color, no matter your creed, and a foreign policy that kept America safe?Those are the facts that truly matter because this issue is going to come and go, the lives of the American people is what’s going to remain and that’s what matters more than anything else.
Stephanopoulos: If it doesn’t matter, I don’t understand why you keep on repeating it, why the president keeps on repeating it, why those introducing the president yesterday keep on repeating it.
Donalds: George, actually, I’m not the one who keeps repeating it. George, you’re the one that’s bringing it up now. That’s — I don’t I understand why —
Stephanopoulos: You’ve done — sir, you’ve done it — you’ve done it three times, every single answer you gave me. Now, let me finish, sir —
Donalds: George —
Stephanopoulos: — every single answer you gave, you repeated the slur.
Donalds: You asked me, George. That’s why I’m pushing back on you now.
Stephanopoulos: Right.
Donalds: George, you asked me the question three times, I responded but —
Stephanopoulos: And every single time you repeat the slur, that is my — exactly my point. You simply can’t say that it’s wrong.
Donalds: George, so then what you’re saying — so then what you — and I want to get off this topic because it’s not the only thing that’s going on. But, George, now you’re saying that “AP” is the one that slurred Kamala Harris? Because those are the facts. You can go to the Internet and look at the clips, George, if you want to or we can talk about this now. I prefer to talk about the future of our country because the American people are struggling. The American people do need serious policy decisions to be made and they need serious leadership on the world stage. Kamala Harris has not proven that she can do that. Donald J. Trump has proven that he can do that.
Stephanopoulos: “AP” did not say that Kamala Harris is not black. She is biracial. She is Indian. She is black. You continue to repeat the fact that you continue to repeat the slur. I don’t understand why you and the president do it. But it’s clear you’re not going to say that it’s wrong. And you’ve now established that for our audience.
***
Could anyone see that exchange and come away with any impression other than that ABC’s main news show host is entirely and completely a Democratic Party supporter who intended to use his position to advance the candidacy of Kamala Harris and undermine the campaign of Donald Trump? When a Democrat claims that Trump is a threat to democracy while that party has managed to deceive the public regarding its President’s competence and mental state, then have him removed from its ticket after a Presidential debate, then bypass any democratic nominating process to install Harris who has never received a single vote in a Presidential primary, has anyone heard George protest and argue as an advocate for the opposing position? Of course not, and it will never happen.
A fair, professional and competent news organization would tell George he needs a vacation, and should sit this election campaign out. ABC, however, is not such an organization. Anyone who wonders why Trump has declined to debate Harris on ABC should wonder no more.
Ethics Alarms 
oh sorry looong time reader and I agree With most of your ethic points but I must Ask, how has Harris manipulated her various ethnic identity cards?
JB
Well, let’s see. She recently faked a Southern “black’ accent in front of a mostly A-A audience. She described herself as Indian on cooking show hosted by an Indian_American. When she was elected to the Senate, her PR machine emphasized the Asian/Indian angle so she could call herself “historic”—because there were previous black female U.S. Senators. She accused Joe Biden of being a racist, and regularly accuses anyone who criticizes her as being racist. Basically, playing some kind of of-color card is all she has.
she’s black and Indian so I don’t understand how in those examples she’s manipulated her own ethnicity in any way.
JB
She all but hid her black heritage to start with, only to play it up now. If she’d been more consistent and specific in talking about her heritage (assuming it matters at all), this would be less of an issue. She’s trying to be everything to everyone (at least everyone non-white), instead of just being herself.
By the way, her Jamaican father (who abandoned her and her mother and went back to Jamaica) does not like his daughter being referred to as African American at all. He evidently looks down upon African Americans,
Well, the father has a different story. He claims that in the divorce, his wife used the stereotypes of Jamaicans as lazy, pot-smoking domestic abusers to get complete custody of his daughter. He got no custody or visitation at all. Then, his ex-wife moved to Canada to make sure he would have no contact with his daughter. Then, she told her daughter that her father didn’t care about her and abandoned them.
Now, Kamala Harris has used the stereotype of Jamaicans as rampant pot-smokers in interviews.
So, she was raised in Indian culture in Canada, but now is pretending to be a black southerner. Seems pretty panderific to me.
New on South Park:
“Into the Panderverse II: Kamala Harris”
Why he didn’t just tell him to STFU is beyond me. It’s really pretty rude to keep coming back to the same subject when the other person has indicated he wants to move elsewhere. Donalds was trying to move into substance, but all George wanted to do was keep accusing him of repeating a “slur” that was not a slur but a pointing to the use of identity politics. Yes, George should sit this election out, but he won’t.
The slur is the new attacking point. They don’t want to let it go because it is easier to pounce on Racist Trump than discuss issues that’s would derail a normal campaign.
jvb
We have moved completely into Idiocracy territory if voters focus on her ethnicity. The fact is that even if she is black because of her father’s ancestral heritage – who by the way was a Jamaican slave owner – she never lived the “authentic” black experience.
If one drop of black blood makes you officially black then most of us probably are given the historical migratory patterns of the human species.
correction: Her father was a descendant of a Jamaican slave owner.
What I read is that Donalds did a pretty bad job sticking to the question Stephanopoulos asked. It was a stupid question and anyone who understands Trump-speak knows he wasn’t questioning Harris’ racial identity. Donalds should have done what Vance did – answer directly, “George, he wasn’t questioning her racial identity and you know it. He was pointing out that she is an opportunist who emphasizes the part of her racial identity that she thinks will work to get her elected.”
Then, Donalds could have gone into the record of the Biden/Harris administration. If Stephanopoulos had continued to press the issue of this new addition to the Trump is a Racist narrative, Donalds would have been right to point out that the Democrats are promoting this so-called slur to the exclusion of actual policy points that Trump also discussed during the interview.
No doubt ABC, Stephanopoulos and the others running with this thing are indeed biased. I just wish we had people with better communication skills who were able to point this out and set the record straight. If Vance can keep the rebuttals short and direct as he did the other day, he may be the person to do it.
Agreed. I think it’s perfectly fine to call out that VP Harris clings to identity groups and plays the victim when it suits her purpose, but that should be extremely low on the priority list…so low it never comes up.
There is so much better, sweeter low-hanging fruit to grab when debating or discussing Ms. Harris. Her leadership skills, her personality as recounted by those who work around her, her record in California, her record as a Senator, her record as VP and the one in charge of the border, her inability to speak coherently, her nothingness when it comes to policy, etc., etc. At this point, any opponent of hers that leads with her race/heritage/culture as a talking point has no business being an opponent…and that includes President Trump.
Well, it can’t avoid coming up if the first questions asked of candidate Trump are designed to accuse him of being a racist. And that’s the whole idea: avoid focusing on Harris’s policies (at the moment), character, and the fact that she’s an idiot.
I think the problem is that we are dealing with politicians who are trying to be polite.
Trump does not do that. He punches. He punched the woman at the conference right off the bat. Donalds needed to punch George in the very way you said.
Or, harder.
-Jut
I read the transcript and couldn’t help thinking George was an inquisitor rather than a reporter. He made Sam Donaldson (the mother of all hack Democrat attack “reporters”) look objective.
I guess I’m slow and just can’t figure this out:
Where is the slur?
Is calling her incompetent is the slur? If that’s the case, that’s really bad. “Can’t pick on minorities because we all know they’re incompetent” is a pretty solid position of the left.
I’d appreciate someone explaining this to me. Because I was just left very confused by Stephanopoulos’s outbursts, not even understanding what he was wound up over.